-The Hindu The Economic Survey presents an unbalanced view of the technical interventions in MGNREGA A chapter in the recent Economic Survey on the “transformational” impact of Aadhaar on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) merits scrutiny. It presents a skewed and unbalanced view of the programme’s technical interventions instead of taking a comprehensive view of the implementation. The Survey draws heavily from the Indian School of Business’s working...
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A new mandi tax -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express A 2 per cent TDS on cash withdrawals beyond Rs 1 crore may hit the farm trade hard. One of the 2019-20 Union Budget’s less-discussed proposals, having significant implications for agricultural trade, is the levy of a 2% TDS (tax deducted at source) on cash withdrawals exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from any bank account. The levy — aimed at promoting “digital payments” and a “less cash...
More »Creating a fair digital payments market -Padmashree Gehl Sampath
-The Hindu Local firms will be at a disadvantage if big tech companies are given plum roles Since early last year, WhatsApp has busily piloted its payment system in India. WhatsApp Pay relies on the Indian government’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system to facilitate inter-bank transactions. Regulatory approval that would allow its nation-wide introduction is stuck on one point: the Indian government has asked WhatsApp to localise all data processing related to...
More »CSOs are unhappy with the way the Economic Survey 2018-19 & the Union Budget 2019-20 dealt with MGNREGA
-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) dated 9 July, 2019 Even as many parts of the county suffer from drought, the new government at the centre has allocated a mere Rs 60,000 crores for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for the ongoing financial year. This is Rs 1,084 crore less than the revised budget estimate for 2018-19. Expenditure would have been much...
More »Govt moves to get facial recognition system, sparks fears over privacy
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has initiated the process of installing an automated facial recognition system (AFRS) that will help identify persons by matching digital images, photos and video feeds with an existing database, in a move that raises concerns over privacy. According to the request for proposal (RFP) document seeking open bids for an AFRS solution, the benefits include a robust system for identifying...
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